Ultrasound imaging techniques have been employed for some time by physicians in examining the condition of the body's internal organs without physical intrusion into the body cavity. In applying such techniques, high frequency ultrasonic sound is transmitted into the body usually through an ultrasonic transducer moved about the surface of the body. Some of this sound is reflected by internal organs with the intensity and spatial characteristics of the reflected sound corresponding to the arrangement and physical condition of the reflecting organs. The transducer receives the reflected sound and converts it to corresponding electrical pulses which are transmitted to an electronic analyzer. The information embodied in the pulses is electronically interpreted by the analyzer and displayed on a video monitor as shadowy images of the internal organs for review by attending physicians.
Ultrasonography has proven particularly useful in its application to the obstetric and gynecologic patient Although at its inception, ultrasound in such applications was limited to the most basic description and measurements of the fetus, today subtle abnormalities or maladies of almost every fetal organ system as well as of the organs of the female reproductive system are being imaged routinely and made the basis of diagnosis and treatment. As a result of increased reliance on ultrasound, the skill and experience of physicians and other medical personnel who apply ultrasonographic techniques and interpret the shadowy and often illusive sonographic images that result has become an increasingly critical factor in accurate and reliable diagnosis.
Unfortunately, clinical training of medical personnel in ultrasound techniques and analysis has heretofore been severely limited because such training has been restricted to experience gained through ultrasonographic examination of actual living patients. Naturally, one cannot choose the number and frequency of such patients or the types and degrees of their respective maladies. Consequently, training through actual experience has proven to be sporadic at best and generally limited to the most commonly encountered maladies. Years of experience have thus commonly been required to qualify a physician for accurate and reliable sonographic application and analysis and many less experienced physicians have often been forced to refer patients to more experienced ultrasound "experts" resulting in corresponding additional time, expense and hardship for these patients.
A continuing and unaddressed need exists, therefore, for a reliable and highly accelerated method and enabling apparatus for training medical personnel in the use of ultrasound equipment and in the interpretation and analysis of resulting sonographic images. It is to the provision of such a method and apparatus that the present invention is primarily directed.